As is usually the case when a group of blokes gather around, someone will make a ludicrous statement and the other will tear into him. Well, that happened at work this morning, but after some digging around, the statement wasn’t as ridiculous as I thought.
I rode in to work today and a few blokes saw the bike. One asked what the 2 computer device were. I explained one was a GPS and the other a Power meter. A few funny looks about the power meter, so I explained it to them. Then the afore mentioned comment.
“How many horsepower do you put out?”
I looked and laughed. Horse power. Horse. You think I am more powerful than a horse. Hilarity ensued.
As it happens, just this morning I managed to bust through the 1000w mark for a new high of 1179w. The boys wandered off and I rang my mate Jason and told him. He said he thought I might have done over 1hp. Hmm.
I grab an online converter and bugger me, 1179w equals 1.58hp. So really, what the guy said this morning wasn’t as ridiculous as it sounded. I better go and find him and let him know.
The upshot of this is, I went looking for an explanation. There is no way I am more powerful than a horse. this from Wiki.
In 1993, R. D. Stevenson and R. J. Wassersug published an article calculating the upper limit to an animal’s power output.[9] The peak power over a few seconds has been measured to be as high as 14.9 hp. However, Stevenson and Wassersug observe that for sustained activity, a work rate of about 1 hp per horse is consistent with agricultural advice from both 19th and 20th century sources.
Well that explains it. No need for a match race like the photo below then.
Jasper Juinen/Getty Images
That’s very interesting mate, you could extend this further to work out things like how many kWh you produced on a ride to then see what electrical devices you could power & for how long… the mind boggles.